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Published: July 26th 2005
Panera Bread Co. is my friend. Thank you Panera Bread Company for your comfortable seating and free wireless internet.
Today I have a few topics to cover. Towards the end you'll find a little announcment about a simulcast of my travel blog via a new medium. This is something that I'm pretty excited about, and you GIS/Geographer types should definitely have a look... but first, a few other items
A run of bad luck I'm a firm believer in streaks, like in sports where a team has a winning or losing streak, or a baseball hitter is said to be "a streak hitter". One thing that's said to come in streaks is bad luck, and Sherry and I have had a bit of a medium-rare streak of bad luck:
* Sherry's been dealing with some pretty stressful 'family stuff' while she's been here. On the upside nobody's in poor health, but on the downside she's been getting a heavy dose of stress for the past few days. It's nothing that won't sort its self out with time, but we don't have a lot of that, we leave town on Saturday.
* Cory (that's me) went for a run
Popeye and Olive Oyle
Rrrrrrrr cr cr cr cr cr...Sunday night and had a gigantic insect fly directly into his left eye. It hurt like hell. I was able to pick the bugger out and cleanse everything out with water, but the next day it wasn't better and, after reading on the web (darn wireless internet) about worst-case scenarios -- scratched cornea anyone? ocular hernia anyone? -- I decided to see the eye doctor today... I got some drops and I am now certified 'scratch free'.
* Sherry's going to have her mother sell her car once we leave -- anyone need a 2001 Honda CRV in good condition? -- so of course yesterday on the interstate a large rock chiseled a noticeable indentation and crack into her windshield. Good thing Geico is open 24 hours.
* And finally....Cory (that's me) had an unsolicited replacement credit card stolen out of his mailbox in Redlands shortly before/after we departed Redlands. The thief/thieves used the card to fill their gas tank at Circle K, their stomach(es) at Carl's Jr., and they also made a stop at T-Mobile (and they weren't just saying hello to Zeta-Jones).
Anyway, the credit card company issued a new card against my wishes/knowledge, and the thieves
Chinese Buddha
One of Sherry and her friend Nicky's (no photo) favorite vegetarian chinese food restaurants. got ahold of that one too! ...Anyway, it's a long story, but I finally got a suspect name from the credit card investigator, and I was also finally able to convince Redlands PD (where's my buddy Travis when I need him?!) to take my report over the phone. This was after spending a few hours at the Douglasville, GA City PD trying to explain why:
a )I had a card stolen from California
b) That I'm moving to Colorado
c) That my mailing address is in New York, and
and d) that I'm currently staying in Georgia...
The Redlands PD office actually thinks that the credit company has me as one of their suspects!
The South I'm in Atlanta and Atlanta is definitely in 'The South'. It's been an interesting visit, because I realize, that may be the longest period of time that I've ever spent in 'The South'. This is a bit of a conditional statement for several reasons: First, I went to school in Virginia, in Charlottesville actually, and many people would consider this in 'The South'. Many people there speak with a southern accent (though not all, and that's also certainly the case here), people are generally very friendly, and you've got the lush green, the bugs, the humidity, the food, etc...
... but, not everyone would agree that C'Ville or even Virginia is 'The South'. I know that most Virginians identified, interestingly, Fredericksburg, VA as the dividing line between north and south. F'burg is in 'The South' as is Richmond to the south, but Washington, DC is certainly not, although some parts of nearby Maryland are. Of course, if you ask a northerner, they'd probably identify the Mason Dixon line (is it properly the Mason
and Dixon line?) as the dividing line, but if you ask me, that's too far north. Just south of Philadelphia?... That's not 'The South'! But I assure you, Atlanta is in 'The South'. and Southern California (or 'The Southland' if you're watching local LA TV news) is not the South. Sorry, it's just not...
Characteristics of The South There are lots of stereotypes about the south, some true, and some not. I've made some very non-scientific observations over the past few days. In the south you get biscuits for breakfast, not bagels. If you choose, you can choose to have them smothered in gravy, and if you so choose, this gravy can contain flecks or chunks of sausage.
In the south you get sweet tea, not green tea or raspberry (or any other flavor) iced tea. The lemonade here isn't too shabby either.
Getting away from direct comparisons, I'd say that the south is indeed hot and humid and there are a fair number of large, flying insects around, and pesky little ones too. The south is also where you'll find the friendliest people, alway getting at least a courteous smile/hello/thank from everyone you interact with, sometimes more (no, not
that friendly Tom). I've asked for directions 2-3 times since I've been here, and I've been asked for directions a few times myself.
The south is very mixed racially. This includes not just white and black people, but also people of asian and hispanic descent. This seems to be a happier mixture than other places that I've been.
Finally, the south is growing and here in Atlanta, sprawling. This is a only a growth pain hopefully, but it could be a sign of worse things to come. It is no Los Angeles by any stretch of the imagination, but there can be bad smog and traffic (especially when you're late for a doctor's appointment!), and the metro area sprawls for miles across many counties. The nature of the development is relatively sparse compared to LA, and it'll be interesting to see how it wll fill in.
Georgia Please apologize if it seems like I'm focusing on the negative, I'm not, I'm just writing down a few thoughts, and I hope that nobody takes this the wrong way and kicks me out into the street in the next couple days... ; )
Anyway, one of my thoughts is about
kudzu. Yes, I've been thinking about kudzu, and maybe you should be too! Some of you have probably heard of it. I'm told that kudzu is an import from Asia, and I know that it is an incredibly fast spreading vine that can devour trees, fields, and buildings. You see a lot of kudzu in Georgia because it grows very quickly here. Though it doesn't move as fast as killer bees, it's still something that you might want to worry about!
Little known fact, one of the pandas at the Atlanta Zoo is named Kudzu.
Some other facts about Georgia:
- Georgia has the 2nd most number of counties of any US state, after Texas.
- Georgia is sometimes called the Peach State, but it is usually the 2nd or 3rd in the production of peaches after S. Carolina and California.
Atlanta I took a flip through the Atlanta Magazine at the Dr's office today. Did you know that there are over 80,000 members in the ALTA. That's the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association. Also, do you know those little oval white stickers you see on cars, the ones with the black letters mimicking the European country abbreviations? Quick, what's CH?...
...anyway, you can see these around the E. Coast, OBX is popular, that's the Outer Banks of NC. You'd see these around SoCal too, usually someone proudly identifiying themselves as being from some white-upper class beach community. Anyway, around Atlanta some stickers started appearing with the letters ITP. That stands for Inside the Perimeter, the perimeter being the loop highway around the city. Not to be outdone, the surburban folk came up with their own, OTP....so there you go, a little tie-in to my earlier ramblings on sprawl...
Google Earth Simulcast So here it is, the announcment that you've all been waiting/reading for. With the help of my friend and associate Brian in Denver -- together with all the fine folk at www.thetimoneygroup.com -- I'm proud to announce that I am simulcasting my travel journal through Google Earth.
Using the GE application, you'll be able to track Sherry and I as we circle the globe. In GE you see the world through satellite imagery and map overlays. You can 'spin' the globe, zoom in to see some
incredible detail, tilt your view, rotate, etc. You'll see our updated location as we travel around the world and you can also click on each of our marked locations to get a little snippet/story, and see a photo or two not seen on my travelblog.org journal. In fact, for those that find this to be a comfortable interface, you can use the GE simulcast as to link back to the journal articles available on the
traditional blog.
Google Earth Instructions So, how do you get in on this action?
1) Download the Google Earth program
here. Follow the link to download the free version, then then click on the downloaded file and follow the wizard steps to install the program.
2) Launch my Google Earth blog by clicking on this link:
Cory's Google Earth Blog. If prompted, click 'Open' then 'Run'.
3) In the GE program, on the left side you'll see a 'Table of Contents'. Find this, then find the little green circles next to our dates/locations. Double click on a green circle to zoom to one of our locations. Also on the left side, click on the hyperlink next to the green circle to view the text and photo for that location.
4) When viewing the text and photo, follow the 'Journal entry' link to view the full journal entry on travelblog.org.
Notes:
- We'll have more GE locations than travelblog.org journal entries, so not every GE location will have a journal link.
- You can turn on/off other information (like 3D buildings!) using the checkboxes at the bottom and on the left side of the program window.
Later, to check up on our location, you can paste this URL into Intenet Explorer:
http://www.thetimoneygroup.com/coryblog/geo_blog.kmz/. From the Google Earth application, you can also click File > Open and enter this same URL. The link will
always take you to our latest location on the earth, and you can use GE to track back through any locations that you may have missed.
Of course, if you have any comments, say, perhaps, that one of you finds a
"problem", don't use CQ or ST, just email me or post a comment.
Check back for updates. Right now you'll see our land route across the USA traced in yellow, but look for air and sea routes to be coded with other colors in the future.
Hope you like it!
-Cory
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Sherry and me
So you feel at home, in the Google Earth Simulcast second paragraph, it should be "Sherry and me" not "I". Just want you to feel at home.